An Ill-Tempered Fate
by tea-lattes
Summary: EngNyo!Pru post-apocalyptic/dystopian AU. Julchen lives with Arthur in a slowly recovering London after the events of a war that swept away the lives of millions, where they temporarily enjoy their new lives before both of them are drafted into the army of the newly found state that replaced everything that was there before. Irregular updates. Rated T for language.


_"Go on, pull the trigger. It shouldn't be too difficult of a task."_

_The wind roughly blows off the feeble petals that were barely clutching onto the apple tree._

_"I thought you wanted to get rid of me, no matter what. Why are you holding back now?"_

_Ice begins to form in the small, shallow pond, the centrepiece of the now deserted park._

_"What is there to lose? You're so pathetic."_

_A distressed young woman falls from the wooden boardwalk into the pond, clutching her bleeding arm protectively, as she hits the water, breaking the delicate layer of ice._

_"The pond isn't really that shallow," she thinks._

_Her consciousness fades away, leaving only darkness._

_…_

_"After all, I'm merely a figment of your own insanity."_

–

"Fuck," Julchen muttered, "I fell asleep. Naps are the dumbest shits ever."

Julchen never cursed unless it was for a good reason, and a nightmare was a wonderful reason. It was the same nightmare that plagued her for about a month now. Julchen became restless at night, and it wasn't any better during the day. Whenever she fell asleep, the same nightmare would replay in her mind as if it was a broken record. No matter how many times Julchen experienced it, the vividness of the nightmare remained the same, though some times were even worse than others.

Julchen weakly fumbled around her small room, looking for something to take her mind off that damn nightmare. "Video games," she muttered as she grabbed her tiny electronic saviour. With her free hand, she dried off the small beads of sweat that formed on her face with a handkerchief then straightened out her short, platinum hair as the game console turned on with a quiet beep.

"Oi, Julchen! Is lunch ready yet?" A young man called out from the other side of the small house.

Julchen paid no attention to the man, but instead focused on her portable game system while nibbling on a small piece of bread. The spaghetti she had prepared, all by herself if she must add, was lightly simmering on the stove. It was almost ready to eat.

Heavy footsteps were becoming gradually louder as the hungry young man made his way into the kitchen.

"Julchen! Respond when I speak to you!" The young man commented as he made his way into the kitchen; his messy blond hair swaying lightly with every step he took. "It's impolite to- oh, you actually made lunch. What a surprise!"

Julchen only nodded, her eyes still fixed on the small screen which displayed her game. "Surprise, Arthur," she finally responded, but with a hint of sarcasm. It seemed she wasn't paying much attention, but Julchen actually listened carefully to what Arthur had to say.

Arthur peered over her shoulder, frowning, and asked, "What are you playing this time?"

"Dating sim," Julchen answered robotically, noting Arthur's facial expression from the reflection of her game console screen. The lack of scratches on the screen definitely made it a better mirror.

"Seriously? Where did you find such an antique game anyway? They haven't sold those in decades. I can't believe you're into those primitive games."

"I have my connections, besides, you're still into Shakespeare," Julchen countered as she turned off her well-it-was-red-before-but-it's-kind-of-a-reddish-silver-now game system, "Food's probably ready now, go set the table or something; I'm putting away my 'primitive' game." She found it at some antique shop without the help of any connections, but there was no point in worrying Arthur with her adventures around the developing areas of a ruined London, England.

She then got off her chair, stretched her arms a bit, and left the room, snatching another piece of bread along the way.

"Shakespeare wrote timeless classic plays!" Arthur defended as he grabbed the plates roughly. "At least she cooks better than I do," he thought to himself.

Julchen walked to the closet, turned off the electrical generator, put Battery back into his cage, and made her way into the small kitchen. She sat down across from Arthur and started eating.

"Julchen, you're taking the electricity for granted. You can just use a fire to cook, it's not that bad."

"But the stove runs on electricity..."

"So what? You don't have to use a stove. Everybody else cooks the hard way. Why shouldn't you?"

"Because we have a stove."

Arthur sighed, how many times would he have to explain this to her? "Julchen, you know that electricity is quite expensive nowadays, not to mention that we aren't even supposed to own a stove or an electrical generator. We're not even supposed to have our solar panels, but the government was willing enough to let it slide only under the condition that we pay extra taxes. It's not that difficult to make a fire, so I don't see the point in risking our happy, healthy lives for a stove," Arthur stated monotonously as if he had repeated this several times already, though he probably have repeated this specific lecture countless times already, "besides, you will tire Battery, he's our only hope now."

Battery was a lab rat Arthur had experimented on during his time as a research scientist studying biological warfare for the War. He was essentially part synthetic, converting random scraps completely into energy just by consuming it, leaving nothing behind. He was one of Arthur's finest works, as Battery most definitely helped out in everyday life. He was originally designed to consume all the enemies' supplies as use the remaining energy to defend himself and use up more supplies, but Battery must have preferred his simple life on a hamster wheel. Arthur could tell by Battery's now docile nature, compared to when he was ravenous.

Julchen was unable to remember what she had done for the War though. She didn't have any memories of her personal life, though she seemed to have a photographic memory otherwise. She even managed to forget what life was like before the War, yet she still remembered how to cook food or fix a car, not like any of the citizens still had functioning cars; it was a developing nation, striving to improve every day, but of course with the help of the patriotic citizens, et cetera. They didn't have stoves either, but Arthur managed to put together scraps to make a stove along with an oven, in case of a cold winter.

As much as Arthur did not like delving into humanity's somewhat dark and completely violent past, he had told himself it was absolutely necessary to save Julchen. After all, he had found her alone in an abandoned hospital, with most of Julchen's memories of the War gone. Whatever Julchen had gone through had not been better than most civilians, probably. She likely lost her memory due to a trauma, whether it was physical or mental. The War had not shown mercy to anybody; not to the elderly and definitely not to the children, Arthur recalled. He shuffled his feet and readjusted his position.

He was only a toddler when the War begun with some forgotten assassination plot of a forgotten politician of some sort. None of the political stuff mattered, only natural resources mattered. The War gradually became the somewhat childish negotiations of nations in trading, asking, and giving up land with hackers fighting on the electronic frontlines. It went on and impoverished nations that were originally superpowers. The War only ended in mutual destruction, there was no point in war if there was nothing to fight over, and they just needed to destroy resources to satisfy their self-centred little minds.

Arthur set his fork down on the plate and wiped his mouth with a nearby napkin. His thoughts of the War only depressed him.

He stood up and faced Julchen, "I'll have to go outside to check on some things. I promise I won't take too long," Arthur said as he placed his plate into the sink, "oh yeah, I managed to get my hands on some lobster. Do you mind cooking it for dinner? If you really don't want to, I could try finding a nice recipe and try cooking it myself."

"That's alright; I could do it, even though I don't like shellfish much. By the way, where did you get it?" Julchen asked.

"I have my connections," Arthur replied as he walked out the door. His proud grin revealed that he probably did get the lobster through his connections.

After finishing her lunch, Julchen washed, dried, and put away the dishes and silverware while thinking how great it would be if only Arthur would help with the household chores. Even though he wasn't as big as a clean freak as Julchen was, she could appreciate the extra help; she still had a video game to finish. But as much as Julchen hated falling asleep, she soon grew tired and started to doze off.

"I can't go back now; I took a break from the military for a reason! I asked for ten months and you people gave me two! Besides, the War has been over for almost a year now, hasn't it?" Arthur shouted, so loud that Julchen almost fell off her chair that she had used as a makeshift bed. At least she couldn't have a nightmare when she was fully conscious.

"Sorry, but your break is over now, you have to come back now, it's law. The War is indeed over, however due to tensions between neighbouring states, I presume there will be rising international conflicts at best, and some sort of apocalypse that will wipe everybody we have ever known and loved at worst." Another voice replied.

Julchen clumsily hurried to the front door, stumbling over practically everything along the way. She opened the door.

A familiar tall blond man stood beside Arthur. It was Francis; one of Arthur's rivalling scientists when he was in the military. He rarely visited Arthur, only coming for emergencies, so he must have wanted Arthur for something serious. Julchen also noted that Francis was too solemn to be his carefree self. Arthur looked worse; his face paled, emphasizing the dark circles that developed beneath his eyes, and his clenched teeth only furthered his tense look.

"Ah, Julchen, it's been ages since I last saw you! You look much healthier than before, I hope you're doing well," Francis greeted, his default smile returning.

Julchen didn't reply but nodded in acknowledgement.

"Anyway, I'll be taking Arthur now, the country needs him. Sorry, I don't exactly want him working in my department either but rules are rules! Oh yeah, Julchen? You should enlist soon, wouldn't want recruiters knocking at your door, you never know what they'll do to you if you refuse."

Arthur nodded and said to Julchen, "You should enlist by next week, you're old enough to join now and they're quite strict about conscription. Don't forget to bring your ID. I have some sleeping pills in my room somewhere if you feel ill at ease, and try not to skip any meals. Goodbye now, I hope I can see you soon."

The next time Julchen looked up, Arthur had left with Francis in a black car, presumably owned by the state. He was still discussing with Francis as he closed the car door. She stared blankly into the sky, thinking what she should do now that Arthur was gone.

"The lobster," Julchen thought, "He wants me to make the lobster."

Arthur was the type of person that would only bring up the most important things, and Julchen never skipped meals. Julchen first went into Arthur's room to find the container labeled "sleeping pills" and then hurried to the kitchen to take out the suspicious looking lobster from the icebox. She then filled a pot with water and placed both the pills and lobster inside and boiled the pot, this time with a fire, as she could not afford to overwork Battery now, as Arthur had so carefully explained dozens of times already. As the pills began dissolving into the water, Julchen noticed smoke and a foul smell coming from the pot, and the lobster shell was quickly corroded by whatever solution that the pills made. "Those aren't normal sleeping pills," Julchen thought.

She proceeded to put out the fire and waited for the pot to cool down. The smoke cleared out but the smell remained. There was no lobster inside the pot, only a glass bottle and a small golden pin with a round shape, with a leaf in the middle of the pin. Julchen took out her new findings from the pot with care, staring at them intently with curiosity. She set the pin down on her handkerchief and her curiosity leaned toward the bottle now.

There were folded papers inside of the glass bottle with obvious ink stains. Julchen took out the papers, careful not to rip them as they felt a bit damp from the water vapour that surrounded the kitchen. She set the bottle down with the pin. There were five papers in total, four of them empty except for the ink stains, and one that said "Search power" in messy cursive with a delicate leaf stamp beside it. The foul smell eventually dissolved with the slowly ventilating air in the room.


End file.
